The Member of Parliament for Burton and Uttoxeter, Kate Kniveton, has today (Thursday 7th September) met with East Staffordshire’s District Policing Commander, Dan Ison, and Staffordshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Ben Adams, to discuss unauthorised encampments and the need for swifter action.
Earlier this summer, Uttoxeter Racecourse was impacted by an incident of an unauthorised encampment by a group of travellers. This was not the first time the Racecourse has been affected by an unauthorised encampment and the knock-on impact to the business from the disruption, including anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping.
Immediately, Ms Kniveton called on Staffordshire Police to use new powers awarded to them by the Government in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 to move the trespasses on. However, the local MP was unsatisfied with the speed with which the trespassers were moved on.
The local MP, the PFCC and CI Ison discussed how the legislative powers could be utilised within East Staffordshire to ensure future incidents of trespassing on public or private land are dealt with more quickly.
Commenting, Kate Kniveton said:
“The vast majority of the travelling community are decent law-abiding people and we must ensure that there are legal sites available for travellers.
“However, unauthorised encampments are unacceptable and cause a great deal of concern to those affected. It is important that the police use all the powers available to them to ensure trespassers are moved on swiftly and professionally.
“I am grateful to Ben and Dan for meeting me today to discuss how we can ensure the relatively new legislation will enable Police in Staffordshire to act more quickly in the future when incidents occur.”
